I don't think a sim is useful for an ab initio PPL.
The scenery may be reasonably realistic today but the control feedback remains poor.
You will get more out of a RHS flight with somebody.
You will get a load more out of some ground school with an experienced pilot, followed by some real planned flights from A to B. Without this (which almost nobody does in the PPL because it costs £££) the PPL training can easily appear far removed from reality and certainly far removed from having any fun
A sim is very good for instrument flight; worth every penny and much more. FS2000 saved me £thousands on the IMCR. But even there one must have ground school. There is no point in flying any procedure unless the procedure is 100% understood on paper, first. I did not use any sim practice for the IR because the flying did not require any additional knowledge or skills beyond the IMCR.